Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Tomorrow is the Feast of
Michael and All Angels or Michaelmas as more commonly known in England.Long time readers might remember
the day always turns my thoughts towards Oxford and Cambridge as it marks the
beginning (or close to it) of the academic year in those two great
universities.

I’ve experienced the time
more than once in Oxbridge myself.It is a time of joyous anticipation and newness in both places.And, even when here in Texas, it brings
forth in me both nostalgia and sometimes yearning as well.I do miss Oxford at times.And part of me wishes I would have been
more persistent in pushing into a Masters program there.But I suspect God’s providence had
other ideas . . . and that the admissions committee might have had other ideas
as well.(I’m an excellent
student, but my record is not the easiest sell.)

I’m not ruling out studying
again at Oxford, however.I have
one or two possibilities on the backburner.

Anyhow, I could ramble
on.But I’ve written of my
attachment to Michaelmas before.So look back with me and enjoy.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

I saw it coming (as posted
in the comments here).And now the
ratings numbers confirm the NFL is in trouble.

With the dust settled on Week One, the NFL saw a
reduction in most key apples-to-apples comparisons from 2015 to 2016.

Via Forbes, the Thursday night opener between the
Panthers and Broncos drew
25.2 million, down eight percent from 2015 (Steelers-Patriots) and six percent
from 2014 (Packers-Seahawks). Also, Sunday night’s game between the Patriots
and Cardinals generated an audience of 20.65 million. Despite the game being
decided at the last second, the audience fell 18 percent in the 18-to-49
demographic, in comparison to last year’s Giants-Cowboys Sunday night opener.

The putrid ratings of the
second Monday Night game are of personal interest.

According to SportsBusiness
Daily, the ratings for the early game dropped from 9.8 in 2015
(Eagles-Falcons) to 9.1 for Steelers-Washington. The late game had an even
bigger decline, with last year’s Vikings-49ers 9.5 shrinking to 7.1 for
Rams-49ers.

Yes, with the Rams back in the nation’s No. 2 media
market, the audience for a game that swapped out Minnesota for L.A. from one
year to the next saw a 2.4-point drop in ratings. Via Richard Deitsch of
SI.com, the total audience fell from 14.3 million to 10.3 million.

The quality of the game surely contributed
to the decline. But last year’s 20-3 drubbing of the Vikings by the 49ers
was a snooze-fest, too. It nevertheless drew four million more eyeballs.

Now you’d think SF vs. the
once again L.A. Rams would attract a lot of interest.This is quite a rivalry, now enhanced by both teams once
again being in Californicate.And
I was one of those interested.

But during the National
Anthem I saw players from both teams being jerks, including holding up raised
fists at the flag.Disgusted, I
turned off the T. V. before the game got under way.For it was not possible for both teams to lose.And it looks like I was not alone.

Here’s the bigger picture
with the NFL.Millennials do not
watch sports, particularly football, as much as older generations.So the base viewership of the NFL are
males over 30.But now they see an
NFL that prohibited the Dallas Cowboys from wearing a police-supporting decal,
that each year requires wearing pink in October, but that does not require players to stand respectfully for the
National Anthem.And for the first
time, a number of players are disrespecting the flag to push a Leftist lie.It’s enough to tick off just about any
red blooded, football-watching American male.

And those who watch NFL
want to root for a team.But what
happens when players from both teams disrespect the National Anthem and the
flag?TVs get turned off.And many who watch NFL want something
of an escape as Ed Morrissey points out.They don’t tune in to watch a Black Lives Matter protest.Being angered by the refs or a team you
hate is one thing.Being angered
by Leftist millionaires disrespecting the flag is quite another.

The NFL is alienating many
of its core viewers.The league in
trouble and will be in further trouble if they do not act to stop the National
Anthem protests.

As for me, I’ve been a very
loyal NFL viewer since early childhood.I remember my Mama being unhappy about the Ice Bowl game.I cried when Dallas lost (was robbed of)
their first Super Bowl.My Sunday
afternoon football watching has long been as regular as my church
attendance.

But I, of all people, am
considering cancelling my NFL Sunday Ticket and boycotting the NFL.

Monday, September 12, 2016

Hillary Clinton’s “Basket
of Deplorables” comment Friday night is already being overshadowed by her
health episode yesterday.But it
should not be forgotten.

For, as Glenn Reynolds has noted, it is eliminationist rhetoric, words that justify taking away the basic
rights of a large segment of the population because they are in the “wrong”
group and/or political opponents.

You know, just to be grossly generalist, you could
put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. The
racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it. And
unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has
given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people – now have
11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive, hateful, mean-spirited
rhetoric.

Now some of these folks, they are irredeemable, but
thankfully they are not America.

So she smears almost a
quarter of American voters with hateful traits, then says they “irredeemable”
and “not America.”

You don’t have to be a
historian to hear echoes of the eliminationist rhetoric of Nazis and Communists
from the 20th Century.

And she said this to a LGQT
fundraiser in New York City.It is
safe to say many in the room have no problem taking away the freedom of speech,
freedom of religion, livelihoods, and more from conservatives, particularly
those who hold traditional values about the family.And they indeed cheered her on.

Thus what Hillary did is
the moral equivalent of going to a KKK rally and speaking on how “irredeemable”
“those n____s” are or going to a neo-Nazi rally and speaking against “the
Jews.” She went to an audience that wants to take Constitutional rights from
many political opponents, and she said, yes, those political opponents you hate
really are “deplorables,” “irredeemable,” and “not America.”

Regardless of her faux
political apology, this should disqualify her from the presidency.

Thursday, September 08, 2016

One of the frustrations of
blogging is sometimes you are so overwhelmed with information that it is a big
ask to put it together in a presentable form.To apply this to the subject at hand, I know Hillary is a
crook.But to put together all the
evidence for that and make some sense of that would take days.And the “Mainstream” News Media isn’t
helping with that since the perp in question is a Democrat.They bent over backwards to get Nixon,
but the even more corrupt LBJ before him or Obama and Hillary after him?Not so much.

So I am all the more
appreciative of Ace for presenting and summarizing the fact that Hillary and
her people knowingly destroyed emails under subpoena.His post is a bit of a rant but I will defer to him.

And do know this is a
serious crime.Not only can
destroying evidence already under subpoena get you years in prison.But that act can be used as evidence
itself in a court of law.Heck,
deposing of evidence even not under
subpoena can be used against you in a court of law.

And this is only one of the
crimes of Hillary Clinton, albeit a damning one.

Tuesday, September 06, 2016

When
will U. S. and U. K. authorities stop going easy on Black Lives Matter?Willful unlawful blocking of transport
cannot be tolerated in a free society.Yet the perps are handled with kid gloves and then given slaps on the
wrist, if even that.So,
predictably, their attacks on free travel are escalating.

Being
nice to these people must not continue. Airports and major roads and highways
should be cleared of unlawful protesters with whatever force is necessary to
clear them quickly.If there are injuries, that’s the
protester’s d#$% fault.The time
it is now taking authorities to oh-so-gently clear protesters from roads and
now runways is absurd.

And
sentences should be commensurate with all the hours these people rob from
everyday decent people simply trying to go about their business - in other
words, months and even years, not . . . well has any of the BLM crowd gotten
more than a day or two?

Willfully
blocking a nation’s transport is the equivalent of false imprisonment of the
victims; it is a crime and should be treated as such.And that includes stopping the crime with all necessary
force.ENOUGH with the predations
of Black Lives Matter and affiliated Leftists and of going easy against them.

By
the way, most of the criminals in the London City Airport blockage are
white.This has nothing to do with
skin color.It has to do with the
rule of law in a free society and with protecting citizens above protecting
criminals.